TEVENS,
CHARLES AUGUSTUS, M. D., of Scranton, Pa., was born in Harpersfield,
Delaware county, N. Y. Completing his education at Homer Academy, he
determined upon the study of medicine, and for this purpose, in 1839,
entered the office of Dr. John Stevens, a prominent practitioner of
Ithaca, N. Y., as a private student. Here he industriously followed out
the course of reading prescribed for him by Dr. Stevens, who also gave
him the benefit of an observance of disease at the bedside of his
patients. Under the recommendation of his preceptor he matriculated at
Geneva Medical College, then a flourishing and progressive institution,
and after having completed the curriculum of study in that institution,
he graduated with the degree of M. D., in 1841. During his stay at
college, he had been a hard student, eager to perfect himself in all
subjects that would throw light upon the difficult, and as it seemed to
him, imperfect science of medicine. With this idea his zeal for
investigation was too ardent to allow him to remain content with the
barren routine pursued according to the old traditions of the schools,
by the majority of students. His ambition led him to examine not only
the cognate sciences in their slightest bearing upon the study of
medicine, but the history of the profession itself, its earliest records
from its emergence from the clouds of superstition that enshrouded it in
remote ages, through its gradual formation into the semblance of a
science, to its present condition and merits. In this investigation the
different systems and schools of medicine, past and present, and their
merits and weaknesses, claimed his earnest attention. Naturally he was
led to the examination of the comparatively new system of homopathy,
which, rising from obscurity like a new star, was travelling with
increasing brilliancy towards the zenith. The effect of his studies in
this direction may be seen from his subsequent course, for though
remaining to finish his course and receive his diploma at Geneva
College, he had obtained ideas which rendered it impossible for him to
practice under the doctrines of the allopathic school, and in March,
following his graduation, he went to Seneca Falls, N. Y., where, in
company with Edward Bayard, then a lawyer, now a successful homopathic
physician of New York city, he pursued still further his investigations
of homopathy. At that time such a course required considerable nerve
and firmness. Homopathy was a new idea in that part of the country,
there being no practitioners of the system west of Utica, and its
adherents had to contend against the obloquy, ridicule and persecutions
of the old school fraternity, as well as the prejudice of the laity. A
very interesting point arose in regard to Dr. Stevens, in this
connection, which was really a test case, and the result served as a
precedent in many similar disputes, which subsequently arose.

Bayard was prescribing
at that time in the practice of C. D. Williams, a licentiate of the
Seneca County Medical Society. The "faculty" resolved to put
an end to this, as they deemed it, irregular proceeding, and cited Dr.
Williams before them to answer the charge of "quackery," and
though they did not then try his case, they suspended him, which action,
under the statutes of the State at that time, prevented him from further
practice, under a penalty of twenty-five dollars for every prescription
issued. It was also the desire of the society to reach Dr. Stevens, but
his diploma being from the regents of the university, it was impossible
to dispose of him in a like manner. They succeeded, however, in inducing
the faculty of the college to call a meeting of the Board to
"deal" with him, and Dr. Stevens received a notification from
them, requiring him to renounce the new heresy under pain of having his
diploma declared void. This was a summary proceeding evoked in the heat
of the time, and lacked substantial backing in the way of legal
confirmation. Inquiry disclosed the fact that such a course would result
in the forfeiture of their charter, and they desisted from any further
legal measures, leaving Drs. Stevens and Bayard unmolested beyond the
private persecution of which all homopathic practitioners at that time
were obliged to receive a share. Another movement of the Seneca Medical
Society in regard to homopathy, not long after this occurrence,
redounded no more advantageously to the cause of allopathy than the
former, and, in fact, has rather a strong shade of the humorous. The
society in question, with a lively sense of the growing evil of the new
system, appointed a committee, of which Dr. Childs, of Seneca Falls, an
ex-president and one of the ablest members of that body, was the
chairman, to investigate and report upon the subject of homopathy. Dr.
Childs was an earnest, conscientious man, and after his appointment,
Drs. Stevens and Bayard went to him, and, after a long and pleasant
interview, in which the disputed theme was fully discussed, urged him,
in the interests of truth, to give the matter a thorough and unbiased
hearing. This he consented to do ; but in the investigation upon
which he entered, he became so fully satisfied of the superiority of homopathy
to all other systems, that, before the time had arrived for making his
report, he had become one of its staunchest supporters. It may be added
that the consideration of the report was indefinitely postponed by the
society. In 1842, Dr. Stevens went to Palmyra, N. Y., where he remained
but two years, after which he removed to Buffalo, being the first
homopathic physician in that city. In 1850, he went to New Orleans,
chiefly for pleasure and travel, and, on his return, spent one year in
Cortland, N. Y., after which he removed to Coxsackie. He had not yet
found a congenial locality, however, and, in 1855, he settled in Hudson,
N. Y., where he was quite successful, but, in 1862, he received
inducements to take up his residence in Scranton, Pa., in which city he
has since remained. He is in the enjoyment of a large practice, and
ranks among the most eminent practitioners of that section.